


Responsibility

by Austalis



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Crack played straight (ish), Gen, Loki's Adorable Monster Children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 13:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Austalis/pseuds/Austalis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt for the Avengers kink meme (linked in end notes as contains spoilers): Thor finds an adorable monster baby in one of Loki's hideouts. He assumes it's Loki's and resolves to raise it as his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Manhattan was in ruins. Again. Thor stared motionless at the spot where Loki had been only seconds before. It was galling, having an enemy who could teleport.

“You are dead to me!” Loki had screamed, right before vanishing. Thor couldn’t take it in. His own brother, his companion throughout so many ages had disowned him? It was unthinkable, and yet, it had happened. Clearly, it would take something exceptional to change his mind, but Thor could not imagine Loki would cut him out altogether. Not after all they had been through.

Some days later, Agent Coulson was in touch with news: they’d found Loki’s base of operations on earth.

\--

Cautiously, Tony peered around the door in Loki’s hideout.

SHIELD were relatively certain that Loki was not on Earth at present, which was why this raid could be conducted with only half the team. Natasha and Clint were on secret work for SHIELD and Steve was doing PR stuff back in New York. It was in the Arctic Circle, _of course Loki would have a Secret Ice Base_ thought Tony _God forbid it could be somewhere hospitable._ He’d hacked the files, discovered Natasha and Clint were in the Caribbean and was not best pleased.

This room, like all the others showed signs of squat-like living. The walls were cut from the sheer ice, and blankets and cushions lined the floor. The rest of it was unfurnished.

“Guess this isn’t doing much for the melting ice caps” said Tony over the comms. “Aren’t Bond villain hideouts out this year?”

There was a snort from Bruce, and a puzzled reply from Thor: “I do not know whom this Bond is of which you speak, but I would hazard my brother has not been gone long. He would not have left traces like this otherwise.”

“Perhaps we can use this as a mousetrap?” mused Bruce.

“A what?”

“A trap, we hide some sensors in here, and ambush him when he returns.”

“No. My brother will have safeguards in place. He will know by now that we were here, and will have altered his plans. He will not return to this place.”

“I guess we’d better see what we can find then,” concluded Tony, “JARVIS, run me a sweep of the area.”

“Certainly sir.”

A plan of the building flashed up on Tony’s HUD. “There’s an unusual heat signature in the room to your left, sir,” JARVIS remarked just as Thor walked through the doorway.

“Uh, Thor, buddy, I think there’s something… no, you’re gonna go in there anyway, okay fine. If you get killed, don’t come complaining to me.”

“Ah hah!” crowed Thor, “what have we here?”

Assuming from the lack of battle cries that whatever Thor had found wasn’t dangerous, Tony left him to it and joined Bruce in the kitchen. Though _kitchen_ was a pretty generous term. The room was equipped with a gas cooker, but no gas, and a toaster. Bruce assumed they’d been modified to run on magic. On the floor by them was a box of pop tarts.

“Oh, hey, would you look at that?” Tony scooped down to grab the toaster and the pop tarts. “I’ll just take these. Don’t look at me like that Bruce! You know me, I wanna see how he’s made it run on… magic,”- calling Loki and Thor’s powers _magic_ always grated- “and anyway we always need more pop tarts for Thor. You should be thanking me for thinking ahead.”

“Friends!” boomed Thor, bursting in on them, grinning manically. Tony wondered, briefly, if he’d ever seen quite so many teeth in a human face before.  There was a small, royal blue ball of fluff nestled in the crook of his arms like a baby. It mewled.

“Oh, good god, what is that thing? Is it _alive_?” muttered Tony.

“I guess it’s some Asgardian creature? Maybe they keep them as pets,” hissed Bruce “I wonder if he’ll let us have a look at it in the lab?”

\--

The debrief was even more informal and unsuccessful than usual. Coulson tried to note down the essentials while Tony scattered parts of the toaster across the table. On the other side, Thor was trying to teach his bundle of fur to stand, and Bruce was drawing diagrams of it. Steve, who always attended when asked, even when it hadn’t been his mission, looked on in something approaching horror.

The creature bore a superficial resemblance to a lion cub, but its downy fur was varying shades of blue: royal blue along its back, with dustings of navy dots, and a lighter blue along its belly. If they were camouflage markings it was for no habitat Bruce had ever seen.  However, unlike a lion, it also had six legs and a small circle of stubby horns on its tiny head.

Finally, Coulson gave in to the inevitable.

“What’ve you named it, Thor?”

“Her! I have named her Hjördis.”

“That’s a pretty name. Does it have any special meaning?”

“Literally, you would render it “sword-goddess”. She was a great queen of Midgard in her time.”

“I see. Will you be keeping her?”

“Of course! She’s family!”

“Then I’ll make sure Mr Stark has appropriate accommodation made up for her,” Phil smiled.

\--

Tony wasn’t thrilled, but Pepper thought it- _she_ \- was cute. So did Steve, actually, and Tony thought it might not be wise to argue with both his CEO (and girlfriend) and the Avengers team leader. It was one of his more brilliant moments in social situations.

 Slowly, a routine developed until it was as if there’d always been a six-legged blue panther in the mansion. She grew slowly, learning to walk within the first week, but otherwise progressing more like a human child. Thor got up twice every night to feed her: milk first and then meat scraps by hand. Tony thought sometimes he pre-chewed them, and was careful never to look too closely.

Days were quite laid back; Nat and Clint often went off alone on SHIELD business, Bruce and Tony spent a lot of time in their own- and each other’s- labs, and Steve was commonly called to do media work, being the friendly public face of the Avengers Initiative. For the most part, Thor watched reality TV and played with Hjördis. He claimed it was important for her development.

Jane often came round in the evenings when she wasn’t too busy catching up on her research or on the other side of the world, trying to view some phenomenon or other. She’d taken to Hjördis like a duck to water, and brought her cat toys. The most popular ones lasted about twenty minutes.

\--

“Thor?”

“Yes, Mighty Warrior Stark. What ails you?”

“Uh, why are there little burnt patches all over the carpet?”

“Ah, you see the results of Hjördis’ latest success! Look, she breathes fire! It is only a little for now, as she is still growing but when she is an adult, she will be fearsome indeed!”

\--

“Thor?”

“Yes, Master Hawkeye?”

“Is, uh, Hjördis our new team mascot?”

“That is a fine idea! She can symbolise our hopes for future generations of heroes!”

“Uh, yeah, cool. Can we get her a costume?”

“No, my friend. When she is good and ready, she will choose her own clothes.”

“…Right.”

\--

“More tea, Hjördis?”

“Uh, sorry, Thor, what?”

“Lady Jane! You are just in time to join us.”

“Sure, what’re we doing?”

“Having a tea party of course! I am trying to acclimatise Hjördis to your mortal traditions.”

“I see.”

“So tell us, which is the correct way to pass the teapot?”

\--

“Hjördis, min kjæreste! It is time you tried learning to speak! The others learned much faster than you did.”

Hjördis blinked up at him and mewed.

“It is no good claiming to be hungry as I fed you not one hour hence.”

She gazed at him.

“Don’t look at me like that; this is for your own good. Repeat after me: I am Hjördis, daughter of Asgard. No? Well, perhaps on the morrow.”

\--

“Okay, guys, I’m seriously worried about Thor. He’s way too obsessed with that cat.” It was Tony who spoke, having gathered some of the residents of the Avengers Mansion while Thor was feeding Hjördis. She’d been in the mansion for a month and a half, and Thor’s behaviour had become more and more erratic.

“Tony, I think you might be overreacting,” Steve remarked “It’s probably an Asgardian animal that reminds him of home. And if it makes him feel better about being away from it then it’s a good thing.”

 “Let’s review the evidence, shall we, Cap? One, he’s keeping a six-legged panther that can _breathe fire_ in my house, and two he’s treating it _like it’s a person._ ”

 “Yeah, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, Cap, but he told me she could choose her own clothes when she wanted to. He thinks it’s a person. He’s clearly lost it a little,” butted Clint.

“And yesterday I overheard him trying to teach her to talk,” added Nat.

“How did you over hear them?” asked Steve.

“I was in the air vents,” Nat shrugged.

“Guys, back to the point. Jane, can we get you to talk to him?” asked Tony.

“Yeah, I don’t know everyone. Thor’s pretty weird a lot of the time. I think he’s probably fine,” she replied, looking a bit bemused. “I mean, one minute he’s treating her like a person, and holding tea parties with her, but the next he’s throwing her balls of yarn like a kitten or commanding the coffee machine serve him more coffee. I think he’s just… Thor.”

The rest at the table simply looked at her.

“Tea parties?” clarified Tony, raising his eyebrows.

“Alright, alright, I’ll talk to him.”

“Today?”  
“Alright, today.”

\--

Thor was in the living room with the scorched carpet. Tony refused to allow Hjördis in any of the others. He was watching an episode of Iron Chef on the wall mounted TV, while Hjördis tumbled about at his feet with a small ball, occasionally getting tangled in the deep pile of the carpet.

“My Lady Jane!” he boomed as she came in. “Come, watch this feasting program with me. The skill of these cooks is beyond compare; in Asgard they would be honoured with serving the royal household itself.”

“That’s great! But actually, Thor, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Then you have my full attention.”  Thor grabbed her and pulled her onto the sofa with him.

“It’s about Hjördis… do you think you have been spending too much time with her?”

“No! Perhaps it can be tiring, but raising her is my duty, and I cannot leave her alone with another, as it would not be safe for them.”

“But why is it you duty?”

“Because she is my niece!”

That was… unexpected. And troubling. Still, Jane nodded and leaned over to put her head on his shoulder.

“I guess we’d better take care of her then.”

\---

“Okay, you were right, he’s crazy. Well, more than usual.” It was breakfast a few days later. Jane hadn’t been able to figure out a different explanation for Thor’s insistence that Hjördis was his niece. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” she continued, “I mean, why would he think an animal was a member of his own family?”

“I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it’s a warrior thing, y’know, protect the weak like your own family or something? I wish Bruce or I’d been able to get at its DNA. It’s probably all kinds of awesome and pretty,” Tony’s eyes had got that glow usually reserved for robots. Jane decided to steer the conversation away from Hjördis’ admittedly freaky genetic makeup into safer territory.

“Maybe he just has some kind of extreme attachment to it? You know he’s still upset about Loki, maybe because he found it at Loki’s hideout it reminds him of his brother?”

“Maybe. What we need is a plan of action,” Tony tapped a pen against his teeth, “If we can separate them for a bit, nothing drastic, just a few hours every day and increase it slowly, then maybe he’ll de-crazy himself. Totally worth a shot.”

\--

Steve was the hardest to convince of this plan. He was adamant that there was nothing wrong with Thor wanting a piece of home, and if he was a little too attached to it, well, that was understandable.

Pepper and Jane tried first. They offered to babysit for an afternoon. He was grateful, but bemused:

“I do not know why you would offer such a thing: surely you know it is too dangerous for you two mortals to be left alone with her? She does not know her own strength.”

“We simply wanted to give you a chance to take some time off, or do something you’d like for a change?” Pepper offered, hesitantly. “I’ve been around super people a long time; I know how to look after myself.”

“So do I,” added Jane, “You’ve rubbed off on me.”

“Do you think I am failing in my role of guardian?”

“No, of course not!”

“Then why do you try to separate us?”

Needless to say, it was not a success.

Clint and Natasha’s turn was a few days later, once Thor had stopped sulking. He had been napping with Hjördis on his stomach.

“Hey, Thor!” yelled Clint, “when was the last time you hit the gym, huh?”

“It has been some time, but I have been keeping strong. Never fear friends, should some danger threaten the earth, I will be quite able to meet it. Once, my brother and our friends feasted for three days solid, and then had to fight a battle for another two! Volstagg had such dreadful cramp that we had to carry him from the battlefield as though he were slain!”

“So do you wanna come spar with us or not?” asked Nat, trying hard not to tap her foot and noting also that Thor had begun to speak favourably of Loki again. That was never a good sign.

“That is an excellent suggestion! It is time I showed Hjördis more of her home.”

\--

Tony eventually got bored and, with characteristic tact, decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Thor, buddy, I hate to break it to ya, but that’s not your baby. And it’s not your niece. It’s not even a person, it’s just a weird-ass cat!”

Thor stared at him. The rest of the team stared at him. Thor opened his mouth to speak, eyes crackling with fury.

“If you no longer wanted me in your house you could have found a less offensive way of saying it. I will not stay where we are not wanted.”

Thor grabbed Hjördis, settled her across his shoulders and stormed from the room. The others followed, and watched with mounting alarm. There was a dull thunking noise as he summoned his hammer, and with another angry glance at Tony, he shot off into the sky.

Tony looked round at everyone else.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I think it’s time we called Agent Coulson.”

\--

Coulson took everything in his stride. Then again, Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to be around if there was ever something that Coulson _couldn’t_ take in his stride. Within about three hours, he had set up a unit of SHIELD agents in a wing of the mansion. They seemed to be monitoring almost everything: news channels, weather reports, military satellites. Finding Thor took a little bit longer, though after five days one of the techs realised he could be tracked through disturbances in local magnetic fields, often manifesting as thunderstorms. It seemed obvious in hindsight. Eventually, four more days later, they found him.

Thor was hiding out in the Gobi desert, in one of the more remote regions of Mongolia. It took several days’ worth of negotiating to get the government to agree to their airlifting in. Tony was all for taking the Iron Man suit and flying straight there, but Phil thought it could have diplomatic implications of the extremely negative kind.

\--

Hjördis was hungry, and she wasn’t afraid to let Thor know it. She mewled at him piteously, she threw herself at his feet and gazed at him in anguish, she clambered across his lap, managing to claw him uncomfortably in the crotch. Then she got bored and went to pounce on things. She’d grown good at catching the small hopping mice-creatures that were everywhere in this desert. Watching her snatch them from mid-air, Thor felt a deep surge of pride, for her and for his brother.

“I guess I haven’t told you much about your family. I’m your uncle, and I love you very much. Your mother is my brother, Loki. I’m sure he loves you very much too, but he’s… very busy at the moment. Too busy to look after you as well as he should. Ah, Loki. He has been a good brother and a good mother in his time…” Slowly, Thor related the intricacies of the Norse pantheon, pausing to relate anecdotes and to explain various complex relationships.

He noticed the SHIELD agents assembling a perimeter around them. It took several hours. They probably thought they were being stealthy, but mortals were very unobservant. He decided to stay and see what they had to offer him. Caves were not the best places to sleep, and Hjördis was decidedly grumpy about the lack of cat toys. And he missed Jane, a great deal more than he had supposed he would. If he didn’t like their terms he could always escape later.

“Mr Odinsson!” Agent Coulson’s voice came over a megaphone, distorted and muffled. Thor chuckled; Midgardian terms of formality were very silly.

“Thor!” That was definitely Jane’s voice, high and clear, though a little upset. Thor reflected he should probably have told her before disappearing.

He called down to them.

“Son of Coul! I will speak with the Lady Jane, and the other Avengers, if they wish to speak with me. No others.”

“I’ll have them sent up,” came Agent Coulson’s reply, before a noise of distortion indicated the megaphone had been turned off. Slowly and for the most part unarmed, the team ascended the small hill.

Hjördis looked at them interestedly, twining herself around his legs and purring contentedly.  Jane was the first to reach them, hurrying on ahead. She threw herself at Thor and hugged him.

“Don’t run off without telling me, okay? That won’t get us anywhere.”

“You are right, as usual. Alas, I was greatly concerned with my niece’s welfare.”

The other Avengers arrived at the lip of the hill and stood around looking sheepish.

“I suppose I owe you all an explanation,” began Thor. “My brother Loki does not seem to obey the same laws as you mortals”- he paused while a chorus of snorts and eyerolls ran around the group- “though he looks young, both of us are much older than we appear, and have lived several mortals’ lifespans. And Loki has had… several children.”

“You’re saying that Hjördis is Loki’s daughter?” asked Jane, incredulously.

“Yes. His changeling status seems to mean his children are all… not quite Aesir, and not quite Jotun, either. His other offspring have been equally unlikely in appearance.”

“So, let me get this straight, Loki got some poor girl of some species pregnant and took the time to steal the baby once it was born, only to abandon it in an ice cave? Forgive me, but that seems pretty pointless, even for Loki,” pointed out Tony.

“Not quite, Warrior Stark. I think Loki is Hjördis’ mother.”

\--

After that, they humoured Thor. Pepper and Jane still thought it was quite cute. Nat and Clint decided to wash their hands of it and Bruce and Tony still wanted to examine Hjördis in the lab, but Thor was even more overprotective than before. Steve alone claimed he believed him. After all, this was the future; he lived in a house run by an invisible talking man and gods seemingly walked the earth. What was Loki’s pregnancy compared to those things?

Agent Coulson, in the meantime, made contingency plans. In total there were fourteen. Seven involved mobilising the entire US army; four required a co-ordinated action from NATO; two called for the recruitment of the illegal underage genetic mutants currently residing in blissful ignorance in New York State; and the final one requested help from Asgard and Odin the All-Father. Coulson really, really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Everything went on much as before, until Loki returned to strike at New York again. The Avengers Assembled, Thor grudgingly left Hjördis with Jane and Pepper and the team arrived on the scene to find him demanding the civilians to kneel to him and smashing people in the face with his staff if they refused.

“Loki!” cried Thor, “for your daughter’s sake don’t do this!”

“Daughter?” Loki stopped almost dead, staff pausing in mid-swing, “what does Hel have to do with this? _What have you done with her?_ ”

“No, I meant your youngest. She lives, brother! I named her Hjördis, and I know you must have grieved for her, but I rescued her for you. And how she has grown! She is nearly three times as tall as before and has begun to breathe fire!”

“What mockery is this? Loki the unnatural, Loki the mother of monsters? I thought you had gone beyond such petty insults.”

Thor’s face had fallen, and his thoughts as he processed this information stood out clear on his face. Around them, the battle seemed to fade.

“Then… she is not yours? The baby I found at your lodgings in the Arctic?”

“That ridiculous genetic experiment? No of course not. I stole it from HYDRA.” Loki snorted, smashed Captain America in the face with his staff and looked around. He was surrounded.

He glared at Thor, contemptuously, and vanished.

\--

“If she is not my niece, what responsibility do I have to her?” Thor asked despondently. It was a day after Loki’s revelations, and Thor was still struggling to work out exactly what it all meant. Eventually, Steve took him aside.

“Thor, you have raised her as if she were your own; you love her as if she were your own. What does it matter if it turns out that she’s not your brother’s? From what I’ve seen, he’d be a terrible parent, and you’ve done an excellent job with her. What else is important?”

Quietly, Thor nodded his agreement.

\--

Three days later, Tony was working in his lab. It was about 3:00am, and everyone else had been asleep for hours.

“Sir?” JARVIS whirred softly.

“Yeah?”

“There’s an intruder in the mansion sir. I thought it warranted your attention?”

“What?”

“A Mr Laufeyson, sir. He bypassed my defences, and the room is sealed.”

“What’s he doing?”

“I’ll give you the live feed. It seems he is unaware of the cameras, and his intentions appear non-violent.”

Video flashed up on Tony’s screen. Loki, bent over Hjördis, a hand gently extended towards her head.

“Uh, JARVIS? Audio please.”

“Certainly, sir.”

“… though of course, this way you will be safer. It never gets any easier, min kjæreste, but believe me, this way is better. If they knew, you would be a monster, as I am. This way, you may have a life for yourself. But know that I am proud of you, as I am proud of all my children, and as Odin All-Father was never proud of me. Well, I will not repeat his mistakes. I will not doom you to the life of a changeling. Thor will never know of your origins, and thus will care for you as his own, without the stigma of my presence. Goodbye, little one. Mother loves you. ”

Loki vanished in a gentle green flash. Hjördis slept on, unwoken.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Erase that from the hard drive.”


	2. Artwork bt Entropy_house

[](http://www.flickr.com/photos/eclectic_house/7824653222/)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt can be found here: http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/8247.html?thread=17250871#t17250871


End file.
